Field of the Invention
Technical Field
This disclosure relates to an image forming apparatus. The image forming apparatus is configured to form an image on a recording medium. Examples of the image forming apparatus include, for example, electrophotographic copying machines, electrophotographic printers (such as LED printers, laser beam printers), facsimile apparatuses, and word processors.
Description of the Related Art
Background Art
An electrophotographic image forming apparatus (hereinafter, also referred to simply as “image forming apparatus”) is configured to uniformly charge an electrophotographic photosensitive member, that is, a photosensitive drum. The electrophotographic photosensitive member is an image bearing member generally having a drum shape. Next, the charged photosensitive drum is selectively exposed to form an electrostatic latent image (electrostatic image) on the photosensitive drum). The electrostatic latent image formed on the photosensitive drum is then developed as a toner image by using toner as a developer. The toner image formed on the photosensitive drum is transferred to a recording material such as a recording sheet or a plastic sheet, and then heat and pressure are applied to the toner image that has been transferred onto the recording material to fix the toner image to the recording material, thereby completing the image recording.
The image forming apparatus as described above generally needs replenishing of toner and maintenance of various process devices. In order to facilitate replenishing of toner and maintenance described above, a configuration of a process cartridge which accommodates the photosensitive drum, a charging device, a developing device, a cleaning device, and the like in a frame member so as to be mountable and demountable with respect to a main body of the image forming apparatus has already been put into practical use.
According to the cartridge system described above, since a user can perform maintenance of the apparatus on his/her own, operability is significantly improved, and hence an image forming apparatus having superior usability is provided. Therefore, the cartridge system described above is widely used in the field of image forming apparatuses.
The cartridge system described above includes a configuration as disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2009-157389 in which a tray that is removable from the main body of the image forming apparatus is disposed and a process cartridge can be mounted in a state in which the tray is pulled out from the main body. The image forming apparatus described above has a configuration having high usability because the user is allowed to replace the process cartridge without putting his or her hand into an interior of the main body of the image forming apparatus.
However, with the configuration disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2009-157389, a space for disposing the tray is required in the interior of the main body of the image forming apparatus, which may result in an increase in the size of the image forming apparatus.